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UPDATE: Panel narrows finalists to run West Palm Beach CRA

The next step: a city commission meeting at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5. The final decision is with Mayor Jeri Muoio. The city also has the option of keeping the CRA in-house.

The top two votegetters Friday were same ones the the first time the committee narrowed its list from six to four on Oct. 18: global firm CH2M HILL and Redevelopment Management Associates, the Broward County firm owned by former West Palm Beach CRA chief Kim Briesemeister.

On Friday, four of five committee members picked those two, but Jeff Green, the CRA treasurer and city finance director, voted for RMA and The Urban Group, so the panel opted to invite Urban Group as well.

The four firms each had made 45-minute presentations Friday morning to the panel. On Oct. 18, the committee reduced the list from six to four.

CH2M HILL, with 30,000 employees in more than 200 offices around the world, is the largest of the six firms.

RMA’s Briesemeister was CRA director from 2004 until she resigned Aug. 26, saying she intended to apply and wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Since 2009, Briesemeister had both run RMA and spent 28 hours a week at the West Palm Beach CRA. Briesemeister herself made RMA’s presentation Friday.

Palm Beach Gardens-based Special District Services, with a staff of 17, would propose installing as the CRA director a familiar face: Jamie Titcomb, who’s been a Boynton Beach city commissioner, Palm Beach County League of Cities executive director and North Palm Beach village manager.

Urban Group, based in Fort Lauderdale, manages projects throughout the state. It recently helped Lake Worth’s CRA employ a $23 million federal grant to acquire and rehabilitate 130 foreclosed and abandoned properties.

The city commission voted Aug. 12 to put out for the “request for qualifications” to run the agency, which oversees redevelopment — such as improved roads and parking, housing and new businesses — in specific neighborhoods.

Muoio has said in the past hiring a private company might cost more in the long run, but would make the city be more “agile” and let the city avoid having full-time employees for the work or bringing in one-time contractors for short-term projects.

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